Adventus

"The central doctrine of Christianity, then, is not that God is a bastard. It is, in the words of the late Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe, that if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you."--Terry Eagleton

"It is impossible for me to say in my book one word about all that music has meant in my life. How then can I hope to be understood?--Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice."--Bryan Stevenson

About a year ago, 18-year-old college student Lauren Batchelder stood up at a political forum in New Hampshire and told Donald Trump that she didn’t think he was “a friend to women.”

The next morning, Trump fired back on Twitter — calling Batchelder an “arrogant young woman” and accusing her of being a “plant” from a rival campaign. Her phone began ringing with callers leaving threatening messages that were often sexual in nature. Her Facebook and email inboxes filled with similar messages. As her addresses circulated on social media and her photo flashed on the news, she fled home to hide.

“I didn’t really know what anyone was going to do,” said Batchelder, now 19, who has never discussed her experience with a reporter until now. “He was only going to tweet about it and that was it, but I didn’t really know what his supporters were going to do, and that to me was the scariest part.”

This is what happens when Trump targets a private citizen who publicly challenges him.

Chuck Jones, President of United Steelworkers Local 1999, was barely off of CNN before death threats starting coming to him because of Trump's tweets about his statements there.

Mary sings in her Magnificat, a song both sung and read regularly during Advent, that God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. This is as fine an example of that as I've ever seen. But that doesn't make it any less dangerous, or damaging. Trump, by the way, sees nothing wrong with this. He thinks having a Twitter account is: “like owning the New York Times without the losses.” Well, without any losses to him; and that's all that matters.

With one tweet last week, Trump inflamed a conflict with China. With another tweet on Tuesday, Trump caused Boeing stock to plummet. With a third on Wednesday night, Trump prompted a series of threatening calls to the home of a union leader who had called him a liar.

We have given a child a loaded shotgun, and it's going to be a long time before we figure out how to take it away from him. And a lot of damage is going to be done before we do.

Last week’s telephone call between President-elect Donald Trump and Taiwan’s president was the result of six months of behind-the-scenes work by former Sen. Bob Dole acting on behalf of the Taiwanese government, according to federal filings and published reports.

The call was a breach of diplomatic protocol, and Trump advisers have made conflicting statements about whether it signaled a new policy toward China. Taiwan split from China in 1949, but China still considers the island part of its territory and would consider it unacceptable for the U.S. to recognize Taiwan’s leader as a head of state.

So: Trump is a dupe of his advisors, because he has no clue what is going on and listens to the last person who spoke to him; or he's a Machivaellian statesman of the highest order.

We need to be very careful when Trump’s spokespeople tell us that there is a third way, that there is a kind of code at work here. When you are told that all Trump supporters know which of Trump’s boasts and threats are true and which are false, you are being spoon fed a linguistic truism: that you are only a real citizen when you are able to decipher which of his statements are true and which are bluster. This is a way of using language to posit that there are insiders and outsiders, and only the insiders know what truth really is while the outsiders will just have to suck it up. President Trump isn’t supposed to respond only to those who possess the decoder, people like Lewandowski, Thiel, and Ryan who feel empowered to make up what’s real and not after the fact because “he won.” The presidency is designed to lead us all, and to negotiate and deal on behalf of us all with foreigners who also might not get the code. When language itself is bifurcated so that only a slice of Americans understands what is true, we will become a country governed by some, for some, using a version of reality reserved for a very few.

And Van Jones is right: the conversation shouldn't be about "them," it should be about us:

Look, the premise of your question is not what I sign onto. I’m not trying to reach out to people to change their mind. I’m reaching out to people to change my heart. The main danger is that Trump pulls everyone down into a world of hateful suspicion and vitriol, including us. The first thing I’m trying to do is to make sure that my heart stays open and I’m actually listening — that I’m actually doing what I’m accusing them of not doing. It’s very easy for us to sit in our liberal bubbles and say these people never listen to anybody, these people stereotype people, they’re all ignorant.

What if they believe things that are fundamentally not true?

Again, your premise is that there’s something wrong with them that we need to fix. My premise is there’s something wrong with us that we need to figure out because, first of all, we’re never going to convince 25 percent of the country that we’re right because they’re hardcore conservatives. If you gave them fake news, real news or no news at all they’re going to be right-wingers, so let’s not worry about that. Likewise, if they’re sitting around trying to figure out how to convince us to be Republicans, they’re wasting their time. It’s the 50 percent of the people in the middle. Again, the people who went from Obama to Trump — here’s where I think we’re failing. We’re so focused on the people who are at the extreme, who are not going to move anyway.

A businessperson who voted for Trump, but who would be outraged if Trump started dragging DREAMers off college campuses and throwing them into vans and driving them off in the middle of the night. Veterans who voted for Trump, but would be outraged if they started registering American Muslims who have done nothing wrong and would say, “Listen, I didn’t go over there to fight for this kind of stuff.” It’s the people who are in the middle who voted for Trump, or maybe held their nose to vote for Trump, who we are now just shoving over into Trump’s camp.

We’re building Trump’s coalition for him by, basically, treating them all as if they’re all “deplorables” and irredeemables or stupid people who we need to fix, and that’s the problem. That’s the elitism. We are operating — listen, both parties suck right now because the liberals think we’re the party of the working people and the poor people and the downtrodden, but we have allowed a strain of very nasty elitism to take root in our party such that we don’t even see it anymore. Then the Republicans suck because they see themselves as the party of colorblind meritocracy, but they’ve allowed a section of horrible bigots, including outright neo-Nazis, to take up residence in their party and they either deny it or downplay it.

Neither party now seems to be capable of actually respecting all Americans. This is a major problem. This isn’t a left-right problem, this is a right-wrong problem. This is a major problem. I’m trying to stick up for progressive values, but also to build a bridge of respect back over to Trump voters because not all of them signed on to all the worst stuff that he said, just like not all of Hillary’s voters signed on to everything she said.

But he's talking about sincerity; and everyone knows, if you can fake that, you've got it made. What Jones can be heard to be saying, in the political realm, not the moral/ethical one, is that if you can convince people you are talking to them, you can elect Paul Ryan and the Freedom Caucus and Ted Cruz, and then set about dismantling Medicare and repealing Obamacare and doing whatever the hell you want with Chinese foreign relations, because: "Message: I Care." You can let 1300 jobs go in Indiana, "save" 800, pay a corporation $7 million, and declare yourself a hero of the "working man."

When, of course, you don't care at all, except about imagery. There's a reason Donald Trump twice, that we know of, went to very expensive New York restaurants once the campaign was over. Like W.'s "ranch" that he bought for the Presidency and sold the minute he was through with the White House, Trump's message with McDonald's and taco bowls was: "I care." But he didn't; he never did. Does he need to change his heart? Does anybody expect him to do that?

It does make sense, from a political position, to listen to people rather than to stereotype them (a favorite past-time of the internet) and dismiss them. But that's good politics, not the realm of a change of heart and self-discernment. Letting go of your anger at Trump voters is not in the same ballpark as self-examination. The former is a matter of ego; the latter is a matter of negating ego. It's part of the reason Christianity is still sometimes treated as a mystery cult. If you're going to earnestly pursue the line of changing your own heart, you have to follow Merton into the desert, because the real world will never allow you to fully practice what you preach.

What we don't need to do is set up yet another reason to draw lines between "us" and "them." Jones' argument is that neither political party "seems to be capable of actually respecting all Americans." When did a political party actually do that, or seem to be capable of doing that? Is that the goal? How do you do that while telling Americans they shouldn't vote for the other party? Are we to believe politics was once a gentlemanly pursuit? Does that explain the vitriol unleashed between Adams and Jefferson in the fourth presidential contest this country ever had, back in the day when only male landowners could vote, long before the franchise became more democratic?

This breast beating will not do. It won't do because we can't confuse politics and religion this way. "Religion is responsibility, or it is nothing at all." Politics is all about diffusing responsibility. Yes, the adults eventually have to take charge in the White House or the halls of Congress, but that only happens when the situation demands an answer. All the scurrying to declare a repeal of Obamacare while simultaneously not repealing it "just yet," because it's a GOP plan that the GOP can't replace without the same plan as the ACA, is a fine example of how responsibility is avoided at all costs. If we decide religion is the replacement for politics, we misunderstand religion and do ourselves no favors.

It is a fine religious precept to examine your own heart, to see the world as needing to change, and the change starts with you. That humility is sadly lacking in the public discourse. You will look for it in vain in the heated comments on internet sites. But that doesn't mean humility is the solution; that's just another way of seeking power. My humility will change you, will allow me to get you to agree with me, will get you to vote the way I want you to. Except, of course, humility doesn't do that at all, and using it as a club is one step away from the mystery cult, where there are those inside, and those outside.

The pressure to take over is always strong. One way to keep the balance is for a political system to NOT respect all persons. Clearly we have to reject the bigoted, the hateful; but we also have to reject the callous, the indifferent, the cruelly ignorant. I shouldn't do that as a Christian. As a Christian I should see them as children of God, even as the Christ (who are the 'least of these' if not the callous, the indifferent, the cruelly ignorant?). But I cannot show due respect to such people in my political leanings; I cannot give them equal voice to those I think are constantly rendered voiceless. I cannot declare their ideas equal to mine, without rendering my ideas worthless and meaningless. As an individual I can open my heart to them, and believe that I should. As a member of the polis, I have a duty to the def to never allow their ideas to control the fate of the nation.

Some ideas, and some people, truly are deplorable, in one sphere if not in the other.

And, of course, there's the irony of Lithwick and Tsai's analysis: that "we will become a country governed by some, for some, using a version of reality reserved for a very few." Most Trump voters think that's already true, and their vote was an attempt to make it true for them this time.

So maybe that question of self-examination is important to this discussion; it just depends on what self we are examining.*

*To be fair to Mr. Jones, this is a much more astute political analysis:

You have a huge consultancy class that is neither working-class nor people of color — basically a bunch of overwhelmingly white guys that got a billion dollars and set it on fire in the Clinton campaign. They didn’t spend the money on black people and Latinos. Our turnout operations were underfunded. The organization Voto Latino ran out of money registering voters, and couldn’t raise money because people were so busy giving money to the DNC to get points toward being ambassadors. It’s not like the Democrats raised a bunch of money and spent it on people of color, and now they need to stop doing that and start spending it on working-class white people. They didn’t spend the money on working-class white people or people of color. Now they want to pretend they did too much for us and now they’ve got to start doing something for somebody else. No — you didn’t do anything for anybody in the campaign.

The party that could have won would have been the party of underdogs of all races in red states and blue states. That frankly sounds a little bit more like Bernie Sanders was the better race analysis. That would have been an unstoppable freight train. It’s not that the party’s race politics were bad; it’s that the party’s class practice is horrible. The class practice of just having people with advanced degrees sitting around talking to each other all the time and then focus-grouping and polling all these other people and trying to interpret them through data as opposed to talking to somebody. That’s a problem. You can have a robust defense and celebration of our racial diversity and uplift the incredible dignity and decency and honor of white males in the red states and be perfectly fine. It’s not either/or. They didn’t do either and they want to blame us. There’s a word for that, it’s called “racism.”

December 6--St. Nicholas' Day (from the archives)

SAINT Nicholas. Day of death: (according to the martyrology) December 6,
about 360. Grave: originally at Myra; since 1087 at Bari in Italy. Life
(highly legendary): Nicholas was born at Patara in Asia Minor to
parents who, having long been childless, had petitioned God with many
prayers. Already as a youth Nicholas became noted for his zeal in
helping the unfortunate and oppressed. In his native city there lived a
poor nobleman who had three marriage-able daughters; he could not obtain
a suitor for them because he could offer no dowry. The contemptible
idea struck him to sacrifice the innocence of his daughters to gain the
needed money. When Nicholas became aware of this, he went by night and
threw a bag containing as much gold as was needed for a dowry through
the window. This he repeated the second and third nights. During a sea
voyage he calmed the storm by his prayer; he is therefore venerated as
patron of sailors. On, a certain occasion he was imprisoned for the
faith. In a wonderful way he later became bishop of Myra; his presence
is noted at the Council of Nicaea. He died a quiet death in his
episcopal city, uttering the words: "Into your hands I commend my
spirit."

O you who love festivals,Come gather and sing the praisesof the fair beauty of bishops,The glory of the fathers,The fountain of wonders and great protectorof the faithful.

Let us all say: Rejoice, O guardian of the people of Myra, Their head and honored counselor,The pillar of the church which cannot be shaken.Rejoice, O light full of brightnessThat makes the ends of the world shine with wonders.

Rejoice, O divine delight of the afflicted,The fervent advocate of those who suffer from injustice.And now, O all-blessed Nicholas,Never cease praying to Christ our GodFor those who honor the festival of your memoryWith faith and with love.
--Orthodox Liturgy

WHAT
keeps you from giving now? Isn't the poor person there? Aren't your own
warehouses full? Isn't the reward promised? The command is clear: the
hungry person is dying now, the naked person is freezing now, the person
in debt is beaten now-and you want to wait until tomorrow? "I'm not
doing any harm," you say. "I just want to keep what I own, that's all."
You own! You are like someone who sits down in a theater and keeps
everyone else away, saying that what is there for everyone's use is your
own. . . . If everyone took only what they needed and gave the rest to
those in need, there would be no such thing as rich and poor. After all,
didn't you come into life naked, and won't you return naked to the
earth?

The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry person;
the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the person who needs
it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the person with no shoes;
the money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong
to everyone you could help, but fail to help.
--Basil, 4th century

THE
large rooms of which you are so proud are in fact your shame. They are
big enough to hold crowds-and also big enough to shut out the voice of
the poor. . . . There is your sister or brother, naked, crying! And you
stand confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.
--Ambrose, 4th century

A voyce from heven to erth shal com: "Venite ad iudicium."

This voyce both sharp and also shryllShal be herd from heven to hell; All mydle erthe it shall fu Ifyll:"Venite ad iudicium.""Venite" is a blyssed songFor them that for joye dooth longe And shall forsake paynes strong:"Venite ad iudicium."

Monday, December 05, 2016

The Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement

DALLAS — I am a Republican presidential elector, one of the 538 people asked to choose officially the president of the United States. Since the election, people have asked me to change my vote based on policy disagreements with Donald J. Trump. In some cases, they cite the popular vote difference. I do not think president-elects should be disqualified for policy disagreements. I do not think they should be disqualified because they won the Electoral College instead of the popular vote. However, now I am asked to cast a vote on Dec. 19 for someone who shows daily he is not qualified for the office.
....
Mr. Trump goes out of his way to attack the cast of “Saturday Night Live” for bias. He tweets day and night, but waited two days to offer sympathy to the Ohio State community after an attack there. He does not encourage civil discourse, but chooses to stoke fear and create outrage.

This is unacceptable. For me, America is that shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan envisioned. It has problems. It has challenges. These can be met and overcome just as our nation overcame Sept. 11.

The United States was set up as a republic. Alexander Hamilton provided a blueprint for states’ votes. Federalist 68 argued that an Electoral College should determine if candidates are qualified, not engaged in demagogy, and independent from foreign influence. Mr. Trump shows us again and again that he does not meet these standards. Given his own public statements, it isn’t clear how the Electoral College can ignore these issues, and so it should reject him.

I have poured countless hours into serving the party of Lincoln and electing its candidates. I will pour many more into being more faithful to my party than some in its leadership. But I owe no debt to a party. I owe a debt to my children to leave them a nation they can trust.
....
Hamilton also reminded us that a president cannot be a demagogue. Mr. Trump urged violence against protesters at his rallies during the campaign. He speaks of retribution against his critics. He has surrounded himself with advisers such as Stephen K. Bannon, who claims to be a Leninist and lauds villains and their thirst for power, including Darth Vader. “Rogue One,” the latest “Star Wars” installment, arrives later this month. I am not taking my children to see it to celebrate evil, but to show them that light can overcome it.
....
Finally, Mr. Trump does not understand that the Constitution expressly forbids a president to receive payments or gifts from foreign governments. We have reports that Mr. Trump’s organization has business dealings in Argentina, Bahrain, Taiwan and elsewhere. Mr. Trump could be impeached in his first year given his dismissive responses to financial conflicts of interest. He has played fast and loose with the law for years. He may have violated the Cuban embargo, and there are reports of improprieties involving his foundation and actions he took against minority tenants in New York. Mr. Trump still seems to think that pattern of behavior can continue.

And yet his conclusion is to vote for Kasich, not to throw the race to Hillary. So I dunno if I agree with him or not.....

Addendum: it occurred to me that the electoral college could throw this into the House of Representatives. How that would elect Kasich is a bit unclear, without a majority (270) of the electors picking Kasich (the choice of this "faithless elector"). Here's the relevant language from the 12th Amendment:

The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.... The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.

The highlighted language makes it interesting, and poses an interesting issue: who would represent each state? A Republican from California? A Democrat from Texas? That alone would be interesting. But the House has to vote on the nominees voted on by the electors, so if enough votes did go for Kasich (say), to throw out anyone having 270 votes, it could get very interesting.

Po-Mo Christmas History

So a new book pops up in a review at Slate, all about the controversies of Christmas since at least the 5th century. Or maybe not.

I can't blame the book, because I haven't read it, so I have to blame the reviewer. The review opens with a seemingly inflammatory quote from a sermon from 400 C.E.:

“This festival teaches even the little children, artless and simple, to be greedy,” as one critic put it. “The tender minds of the young begin to be impressed with that which is commercial and sordid.”

But in context, the complaint is really just about disorder and license, and has nothing to do with a Christian feast that is not yet widely observed:

Of a public feast, this, then, should be the rule and law: first, that the festival have a distinct object; and then that the mirth be common to all; not that a part enjoy themselves and the rest be left in dejection and pain. For this latter condition is characteristic of war rather than of a feast, since it is inevitable that the victors parade in their victory, while the conquered bewail their misfortune. Now in these days, first, it is not clear for what object this festival is celebrated. For the many legends current concerning it are mutually subversive and disclose nothing certain. Then I see only a few making merry, while the mass of the people are melancholy, even though they try to conceal their dejection by a cheerful demeanor; while all is noise and tumult, the multitude heedlessly jostling one another.

It is a recollection of, and a rejoicing over, the new year. What kind of rejoicing, sir? First, then, I observe the manner of meeting, of what a sort it is, and how suspicious and unfriendly! With a voice feeble and faint the salutation drops from the lips. Then follows the kiss, as a prelude to the New Year's present. The mouth indeed is kissed, but it is the coin that is loved,----the form of a sale and the deed of covetousness! But where there is pure and frank friendship, kindnesses are freely bestowed with no expectation of gain. So, while on this New Year's festival many things are carried about everywhere, and money is given, there is no pretext of legitimate barter, nor does any one claim it. It is not a wedding, so that one might call it the prodigality of a haughty bridegroom. Nor am I able to call the expenditure almsgiving, since no poor man is relieved of his misfortune. One cannot call what takes place exchange, for the multitude exchange nothing with one another. But to call it a free gift is still more inappropriate, since the giving is by necessity. What, then, are we to call the festival, or the money spent in it? I cannot make out. But tell me, you who have been wearing yourselves out in preparing for it. Give an account of it, as we do of the festivals which are genuine and according to the will of God. We celebrate the birth of Christ, since at this time God manifested himself in the flesh. We celebrate the Feast of Lights (Epiphany), since by the forgiveness of our sins we are led forth from the dark prison of our former life into a life of light and uprightness. Again, on the day of the resurrection we adorn ourselves and march through the streets with joy, because that day reveals to us immortality and the transformation into a higher existence. Thus we keep these feasts and the rest of them in orderly succession. For every human event there is a reason, but that which lacks reasonable explanation and purpose is stuff and nonsense.

Oh, the absurdity of it! All stalk about open-mouthed, hoping to receive something from one another. Those who have given are dejected; those who have received a gift do not retain it, for the present is handed on from one to another, and he who received it from an inferior gives it to a superior. The money of this festival is as unstable as the ball of boys at play, for it is passed quickly on from me to my neighbor. It is but a new form of bribery and servility, having inevitably linked with it the element of necessity. For the more eminent and respectable man shames one into giving. A person of lower rank asks outright, and it all moves by degrees toward the pockets of the most eminent men. And you may see just such a thing as happens in the confluence of waters. There a streamlet melts into and mingles its waters with one larger than itself, and it in turn loses itself in one still more copious, and many small streams joined together become part of the neighboring river; this again, of another greater still, and so on, one joining another, until the last one brings the waters to rest in the depth and breadth of the sea.

This is misnamed a feast, being full of annoyance; since going out-of-doors is burdensome, and staying within doors is not undisturbed. For the common vagrants and the jugglers of the stage, dividing themselves into squads and hordes, hang about every house. The gates of public officials they besiege with especial persistence, actually shouting and clapping their hands until he that is beleaguered within, exhausted, throws out to them whatever money he has and even what is not his own. And these mendicants going from door to door follow one after another, and, until late in the evening, there is no relief from this nuisance. For crowd succeeds crowd, and shout, shout, and loss, loss.
Such is this delectable feast, the source of debt and usury, the occasion of poverty, the beginning of misfortunes. And if a man become prosperous by honest industry, incredible as that may seem, and not by the craft of the usurer, even he is dragged along as one who has failed to pay the royal taxes; he weeps like one whose goods are confiscated, and he laments like a man who falls among thieves. He is dogged, he is flogged, and if there be in the house any little thing for the support of his wife and wretched children, this he lets go, and sits him down hungry with his whole family on this glorious feast-day. A new law this, of evil custom, that annoyance be celebrated as a feast, and man's want be called a festival!

This festival teaches even the little children, artless and simple, to be greedy, and accustoms them to go from house to house and to offer novel gifts, fruits covered with silver tinsel. For these they receive in return gifts double their value, and thus the tender minds of the young begin to be impressed with that which is commercial and sordid.

But as to the sturdy and honest farmers! What things this feast-day brings to them! It renders the city a place to be shunned rather than visited, and they fly from it more timidly than hares from nets. Such as are found within it are flogged, treated with drunken violence, what they have in their hands is snatched from them; they are warred upon in time of peace, are jeered at, and mocked with words and deeds. Even our most excellent and guileless prophets, the unmistakable representatives of God, who when unhindered in their work are our faithful ministers, are treated with insolence. Thus it is, then, with those in office, thus with the poor, thus with the children, thus with the rustics. For some are distressed, some murmur, and some learn what it were better not to know.

Yeah, been there, done that. The sermon is actually directed, not at Christmas celebrations (which were unknown in 400 C.E., certainly in northern Turkey), but rather at the Festival of the Kalends, "Kalends" being the Roman term for the first day of the month. This is about a raucous New Year's celebration, in other words. Maybe somebody is confusing Saturnalia with Christmas; but again, been there, done that.

And I just gotta say, I don't know where this comes from:

St. Augustine was pleading with people to give alms instead of holiday gifts in the early fifth century.

70. We must beware, however, lest anyone suppose that unspeakable crimes such as they commit who "will not possess the Kingdom of God" can be perpetrated daily and then daily redeemed by almsgiving. Of course, life must be changed for the better, and alms should be offered as propitiation to God for our past sins. But he is not somehow to be bought off, as if we always had a license to commit crimes with impunity. For, "he has given no man a license to sin" --although, in his mercy, he does blot out sins already committed, if due satisfaction for them is not neglected.

71. For the passing and trivial sins of every day, from which no life is free, the everyday prayer of the faithful makes satisfaction. For they can say, "Our Father who art in heaven," who have already been reborn to such a Father "by water and the Spirit." This prayer completely blots out our minor and everyday sins. It also blots out those sins which once made the life of the faithful wicked, but from which, now that they have changed for the better by repentance, they have departed. The condition of this is that just as they truly say, "Forgive us our debts" (since there is no lack of debts to be forgiven), so also they truly say, "As we forgive our debtors" ; that is, if what is said is also done. For to forgive a man who seeks forgiveness is indeed to give alms.

72. Accordingly, what our Lord says--"Give alms and, behold, all things are clean to you" --applies to all useful acts of mercy. Therefore, not only the man who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, hospitality to the wayfarer, refuge to the fugitive; who visits the sick and the prisoner, redeems the captive, bears the burdens of the weak, leads the blind, comforts the sorrowful, heals the sick, shows the errant the right way, gives advice to the perplexed, and does whatever is needful for the needy --not only does this man give alms, but the man who forgives the trespasser also gives alms as well. He is also a giver of alms who, by blows or other discipline, corrects and restrains those under his command, if at the same time he forgives from the heart the sin by which he has been wronged or offended, or prays that it be forgiven the offender. Such a man gives alms, not only in that he forgives and prays, but also in that he rebukes and administers corrective punishment, since in this he shows mercy.

Now, many benefits are bestowed on the unwilling, when their interests and not their preferences are consulted. And men frequently are found to be their own enemies, while those they suppose to be their enemies are their true friends. And then, by mistake, they return evil for good, when a Christian ought not to return evil even for evil. Thus, there are many kinds of alms, by which, when we do them, we are helped in obtaining forgiveness of our own sins.

73. But none of these alms is greater than the forgiveness from the heart of a sin committed against us by someone else. It is a smaller thing to wish well or even to do well to one who has done you no evil. It is far greater--a sort of magnificent goodness--to love your enemy, and always to wish him well and, as you can, do well to him who wishes you ill and who does you harm when he can. Thus one heeds God's command: "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you."

Such counsels are for the perfect sons of God. And although all the faithful should strive toward them and through prayer to God and earnest endeavor bring their souls up to this level, still so high a degree of goodness is not possible for so great a multitude as we believe are heard when, in prayer, they say, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Accordingly, it cannot be doubted that the terms of this pledge are fulfilled if a man, not yet so perfect that he already loves his enemies, still forgives from the heart one who has sinned against him and who now asks his forgiveness. For he surely seeks forgiveness when he asks for it when he prays, saying, "As we forgive our debtors." For this means, "Forgive us our debts when we ask for forgiveness, as we also forgive our debtors when they ask for forgiveness."

74. Again, if one seeks forgiveness from a man against whom he sinned--moved by his sin to seek it--he should no longer be regarded as an enemy, and it should not now be as difficult to love him as it was when he was actively hostile.

Now, a man who does not forgive from the heart one who asks forgiveness and is repentant of his sins can in no way suppose that his own sins are forgiven by the Lord, since the Truth cannot lie, and what hearer and reader of the gospel has not noted who it was who said, "I am the Truth"? It is, of course, the One who, when he was teaching the prayer, strongly emphasized this sentence which he put in it, saying: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you your trespasses. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offenses." He who is not awakened by such great thundering is not asleep, but dead. And yet such a word has power to awaken even the dead.

CHAPTER XX. Spiritual Almsgiving

75. Now, surely, those who live in gross wickedness and take no care to correct their lives and habits, who yet, amid their crimes and misdeeds, continue to multiply their alms, flatter themselves in vain with the Lord's words, "Give alms; and, behold, all things are clean to you." They do not understand how far this saying reaches. In order for them to understand, let them notice to whom it was that he said it. For this is the context of it in the Gospel: "As he was speaking, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. And he went in and reclined at the table. And the Pharisee began to wonder and ask himself why He had not washed himself before dinner. But the Lord said to him: 'Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but within you are still full of extortion and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside too? Nevertheless, give for alms what remains within; and, behold, all things are clean to you.'"162 Should we interpret this to mean that to the Pharisees, who had not the faith of Christ, all things are clean if only they give alms, as they deem it right to give them, even if they have not believed in him, nor been reborn of water and the Spirit? But all are unclean who are not made clean by the faith of Christ, of whom it is written, "Cleansing their hearts by faith." And as the apostle said, "But to them that are unclean and unbelieving nothing is clean; both their minds and consciences are unclean." How, then, should all things be clean to the Pharisees, even if they gave alms, but were not believers? Or, how could they be believers, if they were unwilling to believe in Christ and to be born again in his grace? And yet, what they heard is true: "Give alms; and behold, all things are clean to you."

76. He who would give alms as a set plan of his life should begin with himself and give them to himself. For almsgiving is a work of mercy, and the saying is most true: "Have mercy upon your own soul, pleasing God." The purpose of the new birth is that we should become pleasing to God, who is justly displeased with the sin we contracted in birth. This is the first almsgiving, which we give to ourselves--when through the mercy of a merciful God we come to inquire about our wretchedness and come to acknowledge the just verdict by which we were put in need of that mercy, of which the apostle says, "Judgment came by that one trespass to condemnation." And the same herald of grace then adds (in a word of thanksgiving for God's great love), "But God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Thus, when we come to a valid estimate of our wretchedness and begin to love God with the love he himself giveth us, we then begin to live piously and righteously.

But the Pharisees, while they gave as alms a tithing of even the least of their fruits, disregarded this "judgment and love of God." Therefore, they did not begin their almsgiving with themselves, nor did they, first of all, show mercy toward themselves. In reference to this right order of self-love, it was said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Therefore, when the Lord had reproved the Pharisees for washing themselves on the outside while inwardly they were still full of extortion and wickedness, he then admonished them also to give those alms which a man owes first to himself--to make clean the inner man: "However," he said, "give what remains as alms, and, behold, all things are clean to you." Then, to make plain the import of his admonition, which they had ignored, and to show them that he was not ignorant of their kind of almsgiving, he adds, "But woe to you, Pharisees" --as if to say, "I am advising you to give the kind of alms which shall make all things clean to you." "But woe to you, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb"--"I know these alms of yours and you need not think I am admonishing you to give them up"--"and then neglect justice and the love of God." "This kind of almsgiving would make you clean from all inward defilement, just as the bodies which you wash are made clean by you." For the word "all" here means both "inward" and "outward"--as elsewhere we read, "Make clean the inside, and the outside will become clean."

But, lest it appear that he was rejecting the kind of alms we give of the earth's bounty, he adds, "These things you should do"--that is, pay heed to the judgment and love of God--and "not omit the others"--that is, alms done with the earth's bounty.

77. Therefore, let them not deceive themselves who suppose that by giving alms--however profusely, and whether of their fruits or money or anything else--they purchase impunity to continue in the enormity of their crimes and the grossness of their wickedness. For not only do they do such things, but they also love them so much that they would always choose to continue in them--if they could do so with impunity. "But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul." And he who hates his own soul is not merciful but cruel to it. For by loving it after the world's way he hates it according to God's way of judging. Therefore, if one really wished to give alms to himself, that all things might become clean to him, he would hate his soul after the world's way and love it according to God's way. No one, however, gives any alms at all unless he gives from the store of Him who needs not anything. "Accordingly," it is said, "His mercy shall go before me."

Yes, Augustine can be tedious, but I quote it in full in the certain knowledge nobody's gonna follow the link alone (and to be sure you get to the right passages). Not much in there about "holiday gift giving," which, as I've said before, really wasn't much of a concept until Clement Clark Moore popularized it AFTER the Industrial Revolution (when there were spare objects to give, and everything made wasn't the work of hands. One reason we prize handmade gifts today, of course.) I have to assume the book is making these connections but, in that case, they are pretty dubious ones.

Coincidentally, I was teaching memoir this morning, and telling my students that the past is changed by the present because the past is a construct we manufacture in our own time. The world of Pepys, for example, would be completely unknown to us without his diaries, and whether we cast history as the results of "great men" or as the culmination of the efforts of those now under the sod in Grey's country churchyard, we change history by how we define and describe it. So I can say these descriptions of Christmas are false and inaccurate, but I don't have the platform a Slate reviewer does, nor that a book's author does. We prefer to imagine the past is just a continuation, backwards, of the present, only with different costumes and less technology. I can tell you that isn't so at all, but in doing so, I require you to change the past in order to understand me. It is a foolish thing to read the past as if it were only a few days ago, but ultimately it's just a matter of who gets to describe the past, and which description is taken as the "right" one.

Sunday, December 04, 2016

"O machine! O machine!"

The election of Trump is a sea change because certain people (hem-hem) couldn't foresee it happening.

Unfortunately, those people included the Clinton campaign.

But is it a sea change, really? Charlie Pierce argues it's the result of 40 years of Republican efforts to declare government worthless and "the problem" (Ronald Reagan) and that they alone provide the cure (even though whenever they are in office the economy slides off a cliff, as it did under W., and Democrats manage to keep things running smoothly).

There are arguments now that this victory is the victory of the Koch Brothers, not Donald Trump and Kellyanne Conway. It is certainly the triumph of John Bolton and Tom Cotton, who, in the China/Taiwan phone call fiasco, see an opening to run the diplomacy of the U.S. their way. Bolton was the U.N. Ambassador under W., but Cheney & Co. kept him in check. Now, if he's allowed to run amok, is that a sea change in American politics? Or just a certain inevitablilty arising from American exceptionalism?

Donald Trump won Michigan by 0.22% of the vote. That may be one reason he is contesting the recount there so vociferously. He did not sweep the electorate in a landslide, and with a slight alteration in the distribution of the vote, he would be back in Manhattan tweeting rather harmlessly about the insults he's endured from "Saturday Night Live" (if Alec Baldwin were still impersonating Trump under such a scenario). He won because of a peculiarity in the Constitution, because of the enduring influence of the "peculiar institution" of American slavery, not because the pollsters miscounted the desire for Brexit. And he won because the GOP paved the way for him; and now they have him, but so do we.

These people are not concerned by Trump insulting China, because the only foreign relations they understand is American superiority in all things. They have no clue how diplomacy works, or that it works at all. They don't care because they are, at heart, nihilists. Hillary Clinton was right: they are "deplorable." They are the ones at Trump rallies chanting "Lock her up!", with no clue what they are asking for or whether the law even provides for it. They just know "law=justice" and "justice=jail," and that's all they really understand about government. Which is not to say they shouldn't have the vote (I saw comments to that effect on the internet. Truly the internet is wondrous: all manner of stupidity can be found there), but it is to say they are always part of the voting bloc. They think only in terms of power, and power is only used for vengeance. Which is pretty much the American heritage of the "peculiar institution" which prompted the creation of the electoral college in the first place.

These are the people who have been persuaded that there is a "war on Christmas" (though not this year. Victory, comrades!) because people say "Happy Holidays," a phrase that goes back at least to Bing Crosby crooning it in the 1940's, a phrase I was explicitly told in my childhood included people who didn't celebrate Christmas, like Jews (Muslims weren't on the cultural radar screen in the '60's, and atheists? Who were they?). But the concerns of Trump voters are all about economics, not about race, because it's never about race.

“To be honest with you, the waters here seem like a little bit of a tempest in a teapot,” [Vice-President elect Mike] Pence said, arguing the media had stirred up any controversy.

“I think most Americans and frankly most leaders around the world know this for what it was,” he said. “And it’s all part and parcel. I think you’re going to see in a President Donald Trump a willingness to engage the world but engage the world on America’s terms.”

Blame the media (blame somebody, not "us"); and act defiant. Except this isn't a matter for purely public consumption anymore. Now Trump speaks to the world, and speaks for the country; not just for the people who chant his name at his rallies.

And because Hamilton's mechanism for preventing a demagogue from taking office has never worked, and it never will. Turns out we are better off when we trust the people, than when we trust systems and institutions. Donald Trump lost the popular vote, and he already has the lowest approval rating of any President in history.

What hasn't changed is that the "system" didn't save us. What also hasn't changed is that we won't ever acknowledge that. That's the lesson of "The Big Short," except the film tells the story of how a few individuals got rich off the very system that screwed so many, and ruined so many lives. Even when we tell the story of recent history, it's the system that is our salvation. Well, it's the salvation of the people whose names we know. Brad Pitt and Steve Carrell and Christian Bale, all of whom we feel sympathy for, especially the first two, who at least feel bad about getting so rich of the misery of others. But the lesson is still: the system screwed you over, so be mad at the system, not at the people who profited from it (they all lost money, according to the movie; except at the end, where it acknowledges they didn't, but the institutions that did remain faceless and anonymous and inchoate, so at whom do we direct our wrath?)

As long as we are convinced that systems will save us, we will fall back into this pit, and never climb out of it. But that's a feature, not a bug; it's baked into the very Constitution our "Founding Fathers, in their "infinite wisdom," bequeathed to us. And like the children of an ancient and hefty bequest that has served us for generations, we dare not inquire too closely into our situation, lest it fall apart and leave us looking for a new system to solve all our problems.

“It doesn’t matter to me. He won the election,” [Speaker of the House Paul Ryan] said. “The way I see the tweets you’re talking about, he’s basically giving voice to a lot of people who have felt that they were voiceless. He’s communicating with people in this country who’ve felt like they have not been listened to. He’s going to be an unconventional president.”

“Who cares what he tweeted, you know, on some Thursday night, if we fix this country’s big problems?” he added. “That’s just the way I look at this.”

Maybe it's time to re-think that whole "voice to the voiceless" thing. Because sometimes what you give voice to, should really remain silent. The people who have "not been listened to," can be the very people who shouldn't be listened to (Starting with a Speaker of the House who thinks this country's biggest problem is that Medicare is not privatized yet.)

Democracy is SO messy!

*A reference, quite ungrammatically, to a Robert Silverberg story about a psychiatrist computer that begins to take on the psychoses of its patients.

Second Sunday of Advent 2016: Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen

Isaiah 11:1-10
11:1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

11:2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

11:3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;

11:4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

11:6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

11:8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

11:9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

11:10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

72:2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

72:3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.

72:4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.

72:5 May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

72:6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.

72:7 In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

72:18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

72:19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.

Romans 15:4-13
15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

15:5 May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus,

15:6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15:7 Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,

15:9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name";

15:10 and again he says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people";

15:11 and again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him";

15:12 and again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope."

15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 3:1-12
3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,

3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

3:3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"

3:4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

3:5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,

3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

3:8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.

3:9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

3:10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Matthew is burning through his scriptures for examples that connect Jesus to the God of Abraham. He's looking as hard as he can for reasons to connect Jesus to Israel's God. The massacre of the innocents is connected to Rachel weeping for her children. The magi both represent the world coming to the mountain (although it's just a baby), and the flight into Egypt that saved Israel, and the return trip that made Israel a nation. So John the Baptist becomes a figure pre-figured by Isaiah, and we decide "prophets" means "one who predicts the future" instead of "one who tells God's truth."

John the Baptist is a prophet; and he's talking about what will happen, and what has happened; and it is all bound up with what continues to happen. And none of this is penetrating the veil of time, or divining future events; it is simply understanding how human societies work, and that the God of Abraham is a God active in history. And is it about who you are, or what you believe? Or is it about what you do?

Bear fruit worthy of repentance.

Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

You don't have to think God is going to punish you to think there will be a fire next time, that payment will come due, that there will be a reckoning. For some the current political situation in America is a reckoning; for others it is a nightmare. Who is to say which reckoning is right? Who, in other words, is to sit in judgment? Who gets the final say?

Which is not moral relativism, but humility. Do we squash our enemies, grind them into the dust, and take delight in the lamentations of their women? Or do we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God? And if there is a fire and a winnowing fork, are we sure we are wheat and not chaff?

Bear fruit worthy of repentance.

Paul is doing what Matthew is doing but, being a Pharisee, a man trained in the law of Moses, in the scriptures, he has an even better claim to it:

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

There's a lesson in exegesis, in reading and interpreting the scriptures, in that one sentence. The goal is not punishment, or even the infliction of guilt; the goal is hope. Even John, the seemingly judgmental and frightening Old Testament-figure Baptist whose eyes seem to spout flame, offers hope, not damnation. If we had no hope, why would he come to teach us? And if you want encouragement for the days to come, for the days in America or Europe or anywhere else in the world, here you are:

May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You may take that as an exclusive statement, but Paul means to spread his arms wide:

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name"; and again he says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people"; and again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him"; and again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope."

And there we are back to Isaiah again, back to his holy mountain where all are welcome. The message of the Baptizer is not damnation, it is challenge; it is a call to prepare yourself. If you go to the wilderness to listen, to be inspired, expect to be challenged instead. "Religion is responsibility, or it is nothing at all."

Do we need to change the world? Is it too Buddhist to say "no"? My young heart would say "Fuck this shit." My old heart knows that's just another way of blaming others, of taking the burden off of me. But without the young heart, how is the old heart renewed? "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope."

Paul goes to Isaiah, too; and to the Psalms; and tells us that in the root of Jesse we shall hope. Not in our own accomplishments, not in our efforts to be better or make the world better; but in the one who has come, who is coming, who is here. But it's not an empty hope, one we sit back and wait for. We have to bear fruit worthy of repentance. We have to do something. We have to bind up the wounded, for God is not seen in the world if we don't see God in the world ourselves.

Binding up the wounded; that's something we can do. We can't change the world. We don't need to change the world. We need to be responsible for who we are. God will change the world, using us as God's example.

China’s foreign minister said in response to the call that China does “not want any interference or destruction” of the “one China” policy.

“I do not think it will change the one-China policy that the US government has insisted over the years. The one-China principle is the cornerstone of the healthy development of Sino-US relations,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a statement.

In the short run, Mr. Trump has rattled the entire region. Representatives of several Asian countries contacted the White House on Saturday to express concern, according to a senior administration official.

“This is going to make real waves in Beijing,” said Bill Bishop, a veteran China watcher who runs the Sinocism newsletter from Washington DC. “I think we will see quite the reaction from Beijing … this will put relations from day one into a very difficult place.”

Evan Medeiros, the Asia director at the White House national security council, told the Financial Times: “The Chinese leadership will see this as a highly provocative action, of historic proportions.

“Regardless if it was deliberate or accidental, this phone call will fundamentally change China’s perceptions of Trump’s strategic intentions for the negative. With this kind of move, Trump is setting a foundation of enduring mistrust and strategic competition for US-China relations.”

Whether it says it or not, China will regard this as a deeply destabilizing event not because the call materially changes U.S. support for Taiwan—it does not—but because it reveals the incoming Presidency to be volatile and unpredictable. In that sense, the Taiwan call is the latest indicator that Trump the President will be largely indistinguishable from Trump the candidate.

Trump has also shown himself to be highly exploitable on subjects that he does not grasp. He is surrounding himself with ideologically committed advisers who will seek to use those opportunities when they can. We should expect similar moments of exploitation to come on issues that Trump will regard as esoteric, such as the Middle East, health care, immigration, and entitlements.YOU But he sent out a tweet! What more do these people want?

In the longer term, officials in the Obama administration worry that the episode could not just ignite tensions across the Taiwan Strait but also inflame trade relations and embolden China in the South China Sea, where it has clashed with the Philippines, Vietnam and other neighbors over competing claims to reefs and shoals.

Shit, this is bad. And the people in Trump Tower don't even understand that:

Whether Mr. Trump views the call as the beginning of a change in approach toward Taiwan is not clear. A person close to him insisted that he was just being polite in taking Ms. Tsai’s call.